Awl pal Alex Ross, who is almost certainly better known as the classical music critic of the New Yorker and the award-winning author of The Rest Is Noise: Listening To The Twentieth Century (which is AMAZING), has a new blog! Bookmark it or put it in your RSS reader or whatever you do with these things.

We've previously mentioned Awl pal John Cook's Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, written with label founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance. The book is out next week, and not only can you read an excerpt here, but you can also participate in an online Q&A with Cook, Ballance, and McCaughan right now! Go! Ask!

I'm asking a lot of you today, I know ("See this movie! Watch this clip! Put up with my typos and incoherent ramblings!"), but so long as I'm in a beggy mood, might I also request that you check out Shelf Discovery? It's a collection of essays about the classic young adult novels many of you read as a kid, by Awl pal Lizzie Skurnick-one of my first blogging buddies! Maybe you've seen some of the "Fine Lines" columns on Jezebel which launched the collection? The books in question will probably be more familiar to women than men, but Lizzie is a remarkably compelling writer, so guys shouldn't shy away immediately. Also, while we're (vaguely) on the subject, did anyone else love The Great Brain series when they were growing up? I remember devouring those books. But that was before I knew that Mormons were bad. Anyway, Shelf Discovery: Buy it!

Are you a white person of a certain age who likes to read? Good news! Awl pal John Cook's Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records, written with label founders Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance, is out this September, and they've got a fancy website and everything. An oral history of Merge and some of its best-known bands (Magnetic Fields, Lambchop, Arcade Fire, Superchunk, Spoon-it's like your iPod in 2005!), the book is sure to appeal to every single person you've ever met, so why not pre-order a couple of copies today? Appreciate it!

Awl pal Chris Cechin sends word that Vice magazine's video site has relaunched. Chris works at Vice and is a super-nice guy, so do me a favor and go check it out. (If you're still at work, turn down the volume on your computer. Also, go home.) You should also check out the new issue of Vice, particularly if you like Brazilian asses. It's chock-full of them!

Awl pal Lizzie Skurnick tells what three heroines from young adult fiction can teach us about surviving the recession. Educational!

My pal Paula was on "The Today Show" promoting her new book Mercury In Retrograde. Do me a favor and buy it? I'm hoping she gets rich enough to invest in her friends' vanity web publications.

Your editor's previously disclosed fondness for Mercury In Retrograde author Paula Froelich compels him to participate in the promotion of that forthcoming novel, the latest installment of which can be found here. Plus there's prizes and stuff, and, hey, who doesn't like prizes?